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Friday, July 29, 2011

I don't make Chinese food at home very often, when we eat Chinese at home it is usually from Pei Wei or a local Chinese take-out restaurant. However, I decided to give it a try! I found a recipe online here and then modified it to the recipe that is below. They gave a tip to make your chicken tender and I had never heard of it before. Marinate your chicken in baking soda! It eliminates any odor that the chicken may have and makes it more tender. You just have to rinse the baking soda off before then marinating it again, before cooking. Usually cashew chicken has bell pepper and onion in it, but I chose to add asparagus and snap peas instead. It was really yummy and the sauce was very light and flavorful.

My mom always made us homemade play dough when we were little. This is an edible recipe just in case some of it goes into the mouth, however I don't think it will taste very good. With this recipe you mix the food coloring into the water and oil. So with each batch you have one color. I make it like that most of the time, however yesterday when I made it I wanted to make several colors for Hudson without having to cook a bunch of batches. I left out the food coloring at first and then kneaded food coloring gel into the dough once it was cooked. I also doubled the recipe from below.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

This is such a fun way to make a simple fan a little more fun, and on a budget. Found this over at Design Sponge and you can find the whole tutorial here. The chevron pattern is available on the tutorial to download and print. Great idea!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

I love all of these fun food ideas for kids over at Disney's Family Fun site. You can find all of the recipes here. These are great ideas just to try something different at home or great for a kids party.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

I love this idea, and first saw in on Pinterest, pinned from Ohdeedoh here. Such a fun idea for a hot summer day. Disney's Family Fun site gives you all the details on how to build one! You can find the tutorial here. This would also be great for a summer birthday party, have all the kids bring their trikes!

Friday, July 22, 2011

I made a car seat cooler a couple years ago for Hudson after my friend Kristy let me trace the shape of one she had made for her kids. Well, after making the one I did I got a lot of request to make more and a lot more inquiries on how to make them. So I have created a pattern along with step by step directions on how to make a car seat cooler. The pattern is now for sale in my Etsy shop for $4.00. It will be sent by e-mail in a PDF file format. You can find it here. Please contact me if you are interested in a finished product or check my Etsy Shop for listings. The car seat cooler is made to keep your little ones cool in their car seats during the hot summer months. The car seat cooler is designed to be kept in the freezer and then taken with you when you go out. It lays in the car seat, keeping it cool, while your car is parked in the hot sun. Then removed before the child is placed back in their car seat. This is a simple and easy sewing project that requires just a few supplies. It is almost an essential living in Arizona!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I started planning Hudson's Superhero party pretty early...I was pregnant and knew that I wouldn't have a lot of free time as my pregnancy came to an end, and as we had a new baby in the house. I really love being creative and enjoy being crafty when it isn't something that is rushed. So I had a lot of fun putting everything together for his party over the last several months.
I started by making some capes for the kids to wear, however once I realized there would be about 25 kids at the party I decided to just make a few extras for them to wear in pictures. I used templates on MarthaStewart.com of lighting bolts, stars, ect. for the capes. Then i made masks for each kid to wear and take home with them. I made them out of the stiff black felt you can find at a craft store. I used a colored soft felt on one side of some of them to add a little color. You can also find the elastic at a craft store with sewing supplies to hold the mask on.
I ordered the invitations, cupcake toppers, favor tags, and food labels on Etsy from Kottage on 5th. Inside of the favor bags I gave the kids superhero fruit snacks, pop rocks, glow in the dark bouncy calls, superhero stickers, a superhero shaped gliders, and star shaped silly bands. I ordered all of they toys for the favor bags from oriental trading.
We had the party during lunch time, so we had Port of Subs cater it, with "Hero Sandwiches" and for the kids I made "Hero Sandwiches on a stick". I found this cute idea on Disney's Family Fun website here. I also found the idea to make two tone colored peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with white and wheat bread on the same website. You use a cookie cutter to cut out a shape from a piece of white bread and wheat bread and switch them. We also had a fruit tray and put some grapes on sticks for the kids. We served Mojitos for the adults and fruit punch aka "Powerful Punch" for the kids. For dessert I made cupcakes, cinnamon sugar popcorn (recipe posted below), "Super Striped Jello", and white chocolate covered pretzel rods aka "super sticks".
We had a bounce house for the kids to play with, a play dough table, water tables, and the photo area for the kids to have their pictures taken. I love how the pictures came out with the backdrop! Melissa Young captured the day perfectly! Hudson had such a great time with all of his friends and I think all the kids had a good time! It was a fun day, can't believe he's is already 3. Happy Birthday Hudson!

I have loved all of the pictures of kid sushi I have seen on Pinterest, so I finally decided to make some for Hudson. I made him a chicken, cheese, avocado, and spinach sushi sandwich. He loves when I get creative with his food, it makes it more fun to eat!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Blueberry pie is my favorite and i love this recipe! It can be used to make five of these miniature pies or one standard pie. This is a recipe that my mom made for us growing up, not sure where it originally came from though. This pie is great served warm with vanilla ice cream on a summer day!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

We celebrated my sister-in-law Tara and sweet baby Avery this weekend! The shower was lots of fun and very pretty. The tables were decorated with pink table cloths and burlap, with fresh flowers. The fresh flowers were placed in small glass vases for the guests to take home with them as favors. The shower was also decorated with homemade banners, a clothes line, and tissue pom poms.

We played two games at the shower; Guess the baby food game and Guess the Mommy's Belly size game. To play the baby food game you place numbers on the baby food jar (like the picture above) and provide paper and pens for everyone to write their guesses on. You can also provide spoons for each jar so that people can smell the baby food or taste it if they'd like. After everyone makes their guesses someone in charge of the game can announce the answers and whoever had the most correct wins a prize. For the guess the mommy's belly size game you will need a spool of yarn and scissors. First measure the Mommy's belly size by wrapping the yarn around her belly and cutting to that size. Then go around and have each woman at the shower guess the size of her belly by cutting the yarn. You can then have each women measure her piece of yarn by either wrapping it around the mommy's belly or by measuring it against the yarn.

I made the cake and cupcakes to match baby Avery's nursery. The nursery is decorated with Caden Lane's Finley Bedding and with the tree wall decal. You can find the details on how I made the cake here.